Several Alabama cities are seeing the results of the past years’ legislative push to expand alcohol sales across the state. As opponents of the legislation feared, several formerly “dry” municipalities have voted to allow alcoholic beverage sales while some “wet” areas are expanding the sales they already offer. Cullman and Tuscaloosa are two of Alabama’s most current examples of these changing times.
Although Cullman is located in a dry county, its residents voted Nov. 2 for the city to become wet.
Jack Collins, director of missions for West Cullman Baptist Association, and Randy Makemson, director of missions for East Cullman Baptist Association, said their churches worked together to keep the city dry; but alcohol opponents were beat by 4 percent of the vote.
Jim O’Dillon, minister of education and outreach for First Baptist Church, Cullman, added there was only “220 votes difference between the votes” with little more than 6,000 total votes cast.
Makemsom said, “We went door-to-door, had meetings and held prayer vigils.
“Our theme was ‘keep Cullman special’ and we focused on the positive things about Cullman — its heritage, its beauty, and that industrially and economically Cullman has grown without alcohol sales. … But the people in the city did not get out and vote. It was not a sweeping amount of voters who wanted to go wet. People ignored it. They didn’t vote wet or dry. … The people didn’t think it would happen, but it did.” Collins agreed. He said the entire county decided to go dry about 70 years ago when residents believed certain areas selling alcohol had become too dangerous for women to travel in. He added that many residents — city leaders included — did not believe Cullman would ever go wet again.
“There were several times we had elections, and we were always able to defeat it,” Collins said noting that the last referendum when residents voted dry was held in 2004.
This time, pro-alcohol supporters used the down economy and additional tax revenues to change residents’ minds.
“Their strategy was that they had a developer who came in and looked at Cullman prior to getting the signatures necessary to call for the referendum,” Makemson said. “The Cullman Times ran a full-page story in the Sunday edition about this developer who wanted to come in and develop a mall with major restaurants and retailers if the city was wet. We (people against becoming wet) felt like the local newspaper was proactive for the wet side.”
Collins added, “The people pushing alcohol sales had tractor trailers sitting at every exit with signs on it that said ‘900 jobs coming soon.’ They were really pushing keeping jobs and taxes at home. … It changed a lot of people’s minds about it.”
On Jan. 11, the mayor and city council passed a 49-page ordinance to govern the cities’ alcohol sales prohibiting them on Sundays and less than 250 feet from churches, schools and child development facilities. Although it may take another month before businesses will be approved to sell alcohol, Makemson and Collins said grocery and convenience stores are already changing their floor plans and moving their products around to accommodate the alcohol they will sell.
“I think for the first few years, we are not going to see many changes,” Makemson said.
“Cullman is a close-knit community, and a lot of people are going to be self-conscious about going out and getting alcohol. … I think it’s going to be a slow process.”
Although Collins looks forward to an opportunity to vote Cullman back dry, he expects there also may be a push to expand the city’s alcohol laws in the future.
“The big liquor business is never satisfied,” he said. “Sooner or later they are going to want to come back and sell on Sundays.”
That is exactly what is happening in Tuscaloosa. The city is already wet, but its city leaders are trying to expand alcohol sales to include Sundays. After state lawmakers passed House Bill 565 — sponsored by Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa — last year to allow a vote on the matter, a special election was set in the city for Feb. 22. City Council President Harrison Taylor reportedly told the Tuscaloosa News that city leaders have been working to get this issue before the people for “16 or 17 years.”
Ed Steelman, spokesperson for the Tuscaloosa Baptist Association Christian Life Committee, which is fighting against the expanded sales, agreed. He believes city leaders will continue petitioning for Sunday alcohol sales until the vote passes.
“The general public has not been pushing for this,” Steelman said. “It’s the mayor, city council, restaurants and bars — the people who will benefit from it. We think it benefits a few at the expense of the many — the general public.”
Steelman said alcohol-related issues are a problem in Tuscaloosa especially for teens and college students, and he doesn’t want those issues to become worse.
“The general public knows we are against it morally and biblically, but what we are trying to tell our general public is that we are trying to maintain the quality of life in our community,” he said. “We would like to have one day — a safer day — where people don’t have to worry about people coming out of bars and restaurants and drinking and driving drunk … a day for the family. … [Drinking] is a problem here in our city, yet they continue to push it for tax purposes. They want more tax revenue. But the statistics show that it does not significantly increase tax revenue.”
Billy Gray, associate director of missions for Tuscaloosa Association, hopes the churches will be successful in stopping the legalization of Sunday alcohol sales.
“We are discussing a strategy to help inform our churches to do what we can do as an association,” he said.
“It’s in the hands of the churches and the people on whether or not we have a good turnout. … Anything we can do to decrease the availability of alcohol is a good move.”
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